admin
Tendai Rupapa in MBERENGWA
LOVE knows no boundaries.
True to the statement, First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, yesterday travelled to the remote part of rural Mberengwa to honour an invitation by widowed grannies aged 86 and 83, who are charmed by her philanthropic work.
The sisters, Gogo Clementina Gumbo-Hove (86) and Gogo Rebecca Gumbo-Hove (83) were married to the same man, who sadly passed away in 1997, leaving them behind with eight and six children, respectively.
After being bought a television set by their children, the elderly sisters have been following the mother of the nation’s all-encompassing life-changing programmes with admiration.
They then extended an invite to Dr Mnangagwa to give her four Brahman and Boran cattle as a way of saying thank you for helping the needy, especially the elderly and orphans.
It is the pair’s wish that once the cattle reproduce, the First Lady would help other elderly people to start projects and distribute milk to hospitals as they saw her do on television.
It was an emotional and tear-jerking moment when the First Lady reached the homestead and her hosts broke into the song “Jehova ndivo Mufudzi wangu” and danced in an expression of joy.
The mother of the nation also shed tears.
“I am overjoyed by this occasion of being visited by the First Lady. It is both gratifying and astonishing. What you have done makes the whole country wonder as to what has happened at this homestead. Asi takudana mwanangu kuti titi thank you nemabasa ako akanaka. This has never happened for a First Lady to set foot in remote areas, your love is unmatched mwanangu. You have fulfilled our dreams of meeting you while we are still alive. The Lord is my shepherd. You are our mother, our daughter and today we are grateful. We watch you on television regularly visiting lots of places as you go about your work and saw it fit to draw you closer and find ways to assist you kuti basa rako rireruke. We advised our children that we had gifts that we wanted to hand over to you. Thank you for honouring our invitation, May the good Lord bless you all the days of your life. May he give you more years to live so that you continue with your good deeds,” Gogo Clementina said.
Gogo Rebecca said she was touched by the First Lady’s philanthropic work and saw it fit to lend her a hand.
“We have been following you on national television and reading in newspapers the great things that you are doing countrywide our daughter. We then consulted with our children who then gave us the green light to do as we had planned. We however, never thought you would personally come here, to this remote part of the country to meet us. May God bless you and grant you more strength in whatever you do,” she said with a broad smile.
She went down memory lane narrating what she learnt in school and the importance of loving one another.
Gogo Rebecca illuminated the meeting with her rib-cracking jokes.
Other villagers ululated and joined the widows in song and dance saying it was for the first time in their lives that their community had received such an important visitor.
Amai Mnangagwa left people at the homestead awestruck by her humility as she knelt before the grannies thanking them for their love and the gifts.
“Ndauya pano ana mai vangu ini mwana wenyu. I have come to kneel down before you and humble myself. I am thankful for the gift of this magnitude. Nyika yeZimbabwe honaiwo zvandaitirwa navana gogo, ana mai vedu. Aiwa vanambuya, izvi maitira mhuri yese yezimbabwe because there are those who are going to benefit from this gift. Kutenda kwenyu hakusi kutenda kwemusha uno chete, kutenda muchitendera nyika yose. To all those who are working with me and my Angel of Hope Foundation, I thank them all. Zimbabwe see what has been done for me. It’s you the whole country that has done this because the spirit we have is to unite the country as one nation. I am thankful. I also want to thank the President who allows me to go about doing this work in every corner of the country,” she said to thunderous applause.
Chief Mataruse, Mr John Bera, was at a loss for words and praised the First Lady for her unparalleled demonstration of love:
“We are thankful for the great works that are being done by the First Lady. The work she does to teach people how things are done the cultural way is splendid. We thank her and praise her for the work as she assists the elderly and the needy,” he said.
Gogo Gloria Makena, a neighbour, said her community was touched by the First Lady’s benevolence and hardworking spirit.
“When it’s news time we gather around the television set at this homestead to see the great work that is being done by our daughter, the First Lady. She is touching many lives and we can only ask God to give her more strength and bless her abundantly,” she said
Gogo Clementina’s child, Dr Cumings Hove, thanked the First Lady for her visit and empowerment programmes.
He narrated how his mothers follow her programmes religiously on television and share with other elderly people in the village what they would have seen on television.
Later, the First Lady had a memorable interactive session with the elderly in the community who came out in their numbers during which she tackled thorny issues like Covid-19, drug abuse, domestic violence, the need to curb child marriages and the importance of looking after the elderly.
The First Lady who is also the health ambassador and is committed to the prevention of new HIV infections and Aids related deaths, urged people to regularly get tested and know their status.
“I greet you with happiness ana mbuya nana sekuri in Mberengwa and say this is a day that I have come to visit you. I was invited by vana Gogo Hove who said come here we have seen what you do on television, come and we will give you a gift. I told myself that I would fulfil their wish after seeing their ages. Yes, I do receive gifts for Angel of Hope Foundation, but this was the first time to be invited by people of such ages. It’s something that had never happened. I was touched by this demonstration of love. May God bless them forever. Grandmothers, I can’t thank you enough. This teaches us love,” she said while kneeling down.
Dr Mnangagwa, who is the country’s health ambassador said people had to adhere to Covid-19 protocols of masking up, washing hands and observing social distancing.
“Covid-19 is still with us and let’s follow the prevention protocols. I urge you to get vaccinated and get booster shots so that we protect ourselves. What has prompted me to invite other elders is because our children are ruined by drugs and marriages are collapsing because of gender-based violence.
“Please vana mbuya nana sekuru tell us how you met and the principles you followed. To those who married recently, how are you living in the homes with your husbands. I urge you to listen to what our elders are going to say,” she said.
In response, Gogo Esther Ncube highlighted that marriages of old lasted longer because people married for pure love.
“In the olden days it was pure love. Even if the boy had nothing, we would work hard to build our home together, but this is no longer the case today where people rush for a rich man and when the money is lost, the marriage collapses. We also would not engage in sex before marriage. We would swim with boys in the rivers but we exercised restraint. Nowadays children are walking in the nude? Is that Westernisation?” she asked.
Similar words were shared by Gogo Emma Ndlovu.
“Children are abusing drugs. As we grew up, beer was for elders while children drank maheu but nowadays both boys and girls are getting drunk more that their fathers. They no longer have respect, and if you counsel them for taking potent drinks like mutoriro they threaten to beat you up. Amai You have done well to come and talk to your children because we are pained by their behaviour,” said Gogo Ndlovu.
Sekuru Joe Mudzingwa echoed similar sentiments and said in the olden days, children did not frequent beerhalls.
“In the olden days you wouldn’t see young children at beerhalls but nowadays we are drinking with them because they are naughty and do not want to be counselled. Some mothers are influencing their daughters to misbehave because of their quest for niceties. If I counsel the child, the mother goes berserk shouting at me,” he said.
One of the elderly discussants raised a painful issue that the elderly were always accused of witchcraft resulting in some daughters-in-law refusing to send their children to them for holiday.
Said Gogo Esther Baleni: “Young daughters-in-law do not bring their children for holidays saying we are witches. Is it a crime to be old? Even looking after us is a challenge. We crave for dresses from our children. Amai these young daughters-in-law need training. If they don’t bring their children to us, who will teach these children the norms and values of this nation.”
The First Lady weighed in urging daughters-in-law to always show respect.
“My daughters, respect your parents and your in-laws for the bible also encourages this. That is why we are moving with the Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programme teaching you because this is important. As mothers let us sit down with our children to teach them and not marry them off while still in school. Let us teach our children good manners which they will take kwavacharoorwa or kwavacharoora,” she said.
A daughter in-law said there were challenges among sisters-in-law, especially in cases where the husband’s sister was divorced, hence the moniker “return soldier”.
“There are challenges in the homes, especially among us and the husband’s sister who was divorced. The aunties failed to sustain their marriages but they want to rule us, hence the endless fights,” she said.
But the First Lady emphasised the need for peace at all times.
On courtship she said, “You boys what type of girls do you prefer and you girls what type of boys do you want to marry,” she asked.
Lindelani Hove said she wanted a boy who dresses property and was hardworking, while Dumisani Mbopela said he wanted a girl who dressed appropriately, was God-fearing and respectful.
The First Lady asked the type of drugs that were affecting children and they all said mbanje, musombodia, twumbwa and guka among other dangerous drugs.
One boy said some elderly women who frequented bars were responsible for selling drugs.
“Some elderly women who frequent bars will be selling drugs from their bags and give these to boys, whom them later sleep with.”
The First Lady said this must come to an end.
“We have rejected prostitution and we want people who work with their hands. I will come back here with projects so that we leave beer halls and work. Drugs have killed our children and I think it is best if we form committees (of) men, women, boys and girls to work with the police, my office using 575 toll free and the minister of state’s office.
The mother of the nation spoke candidly against domestic violence and marrying off young children before the time is ripe. She informed the gathering about Empower Bank for youths and Women’s Bank and urged people to make use of these facilities to start projects.
She gave out food hampers and toiletries to the community as she respected chiefs by kneeling before them as she handed them hampers.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Midlands, Larry Mavima, thanked the First Lady for her visit and love for the people of Zimbabwe.
Mberengwa East legislator Cde Marko Raidza hailed the First Lady for visiting his constituency.
“We are thankful to the First Lady for her good organisational skills and coming to visit our elderly. It was a good event where the elderly came in their numbers. We brought them all from this constituency. We had over 5 000 elderly people whom the First Lady came to visit and share information with. They taught us tradition and how daughters-in-law can live in the homes with their in-laws in the homes and vice versa. Amai touched on the topical issue of drug abuse among youths and the youngsters confirmed that they are taking drugs. In the end of it all, we ended up seeing that as community leaders we must work hard to urge the youths and others who do bad things to quit those bad deeds and focus on production. The President always talks about production and that a country is built by its citizens and that we can end poverty my working with our hands,” he said.
Cde Raidza said a well-mannered person was critical for the development of the country.
Online Reporter